If your game has been rated 1 cup, please don't be offended! It's common
for your first game release to get a 1-cup rating, due to the game having
a lack of polish and flair -- which is understandable, because you're just
getting started!

Please understand that the main purpose of the ratings is to help potential
game players find high quality, bug-free games to play. You've probably learnt
a lot about AGS as a result of making your first game -- so why not use that
knowledge to start afresh, and do even better with your next game!

About this game

Cross Stitch Casper is a game that focuses on story and characters.
The homely embroidered graphics are in contrast to the bleak home of main protagonist.

As player you control little Casper. But you're not him. You're just observing the world he's living in and the struggles he has to endure.
How will he manage to get through his daily live's struggles? Will he at all?

The only person sympathizing with him seems to be his grandmother. Then again, how much can an old woman do?

This game's threads

AGS Awards

AGS Panel Review

"Cross Stitch Casper is short, gloomy, and embroidered. It's also extremely moving, as we watch Casper, our child protagonist, struggle to understand and survive the harsh world of adults.

The finest moments are when we as player first realize the true nature of Casper's situation, beyond his own naive, innocent descriptions of it. The contrast between the ubiquitous god-fearing embroideries and the misery of the home they adorn is very effective.

Perhaps an even shorter, even more naked account of Casper's experiences would be preferable, as this game tends to lose focus towards the end, and the puzzles turn into a repetative go-to-screen-X-to-get-item-Y routine.

The ending is absolutely heartbreaking, and even though the technical solution to [spoiler alert] create the fire at first seems style-breaking, it's actually pretty symbolic that the flames aren't cross-stitched - since they burn up not only the house but also the canvas and the stitches that built up the game world."

8 people commented on this game (newest first):

GRAPHICS
Interesting concept with the graphics but it makes the text nearly illegible! Had to play it in a small window to read it.
The original stich graphics are ruined by some less-than-average overlay effects in the end.

STORY and PACING
The quality of the story and game pace is very uneven. It starts (very) strong (made my heart break), while the middle and near-end is slow and it loses the personal touch, probably because of the non-existing puzzles and the objects placed on two opposite ends (a lot of slow walking to get something and bring it back).

Man, that got dark in a hurry. Excellent style! One technical note, the first time I played it wasn't drawing the sprites (and I thought it was some sort of 'first-stitch perspective'), frustrating since without being able to see things like the front door, bottle, and mousetrap, it was just a bunch of random pointing and clicking. Exiting and fiddling with the settings in setup fixed it. I had the renderer originally set to "Direct3D9," Smooth Scaled Sprites enabled, and the sprite cache turned up. After setting them all back to the defaults, I was able to have a much less frustrating experience, abeit a much more depressing one. :)